Offering a fresh critical perspective on this momentous event, Andrew Shennan examines both the continuities and discontinuities that resulted from the events of 1940. The main focus is on the French experience of the war, but this experience is framed within the larger context of France's - and Europe's - protracted mid-twentieth century crisis.

Andrew Shennan

Preface, Prologue: May-June 1940: fragments and impressions AR? ONE: ??? POLI?ICS OF DEFEAT 1. Expectations 2. Post-defeat politics: impotence and improvisation 3. Vichy, resistance, and the lessons of defeat 4. 1940 after Liberation PART ?WO: ??? DEFEAT IN ?ISTORY 5. The short term: aftermath ?. The medium term: transitions 7. The long term: legacies